WEATHER IS TO CLIMATE, WHAT THE NCAA TOURNAMENT IS TO COLLEGE BASKETBALL

A freak snowstorm in June or a heatwave in the Artic? That’s weather - unpredictable and hard to forecast.

A desperation heave that lifts some no-name school from the Midwest over a basketball Blue Blood or an unknown 20-something coach out dueling a legend like Jim Boeheim of Syracuse? That’s the NCAA Tournament – unpredictable and impossible to forecast.

However, an obvious trend line that 97% of all scientists agree shows the planet warming? That’s climate and it is predictable and easy to forecast.

Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Michigan State, Arizona, UCLA all making the tournament year after year after year? That’s college basketball and it too is predictable and easy to forecast.

As the nation is about to dive headfirst into March Madness in basketball and Spring Madness that is the weather, I thought it might be a good idea to compare and contrast these two happenings within their unique relationship to larger forces, i.e. college basketball and climate.

Trying to accurately guess what is going to happen in the Tournament is folly. No one, not Joe at the bar nor the paid experts at CBS and ESPN know what’s going to happen. In fact, Joe at the bar has just as much chance of filling out an accurate bracket as Jay Bilas or Jim Nance or anyone else who makes his living handicapping college hoops. The reason is simple: a massively compressed tournament with 68 teams made up of teenagers and 20-year-olds fighting their guts out for eight days is the very definition of unpredictability. Wild and crazy things don’t just happen – they have to happen in this kind of frenzied chaos.

However, out of this chaos will come a champion that is almost 100 percent guaranteed to be one of the perennial powers in college basketball. The Dukes, the Kansas’s, the Kentucky’s the UCLA’s, the Michigan State’s, the Connecticut’s continuously win and continuously challenge for a national championship because the almost always pair the best players in the nation with the best coaches in the game. That is predictable and that is college basketball. Talent and resources win.

Like the tournament, weather is crazy and unpredictable. It’s a mere snapshot of the larger climate and there are way too many variables to contend with in order to always obtain accurate forecasts.  The meteorologist isn’t often wrong because he or she is stupid. He or she is often wrong because in most cases they are trying to predict the unpredictable.

But climate scientists aren’t playing the same game as meteorologists. Climate science is all about study that takes the long view. Patterns and averages calculated over decades and millennia and carefully categorized and tabulated. Massive data, massive time and massive patience are the hallmarks of climate science and its output is thoroughly predictable models.

You can’t confuse weather with climate. They are very, very different. One is a frustrating line graph of wildly swinging axis marks, the other is a steady chart of progression. One samples hours and days, the other samples centuries and eras.

Similarly, we have the wacky going’s on of March Madness, where a “Cinderella Story” underdog school will capture America’s heart for a couple of days. The crazy 5-12 seeded upsets, the tiny school sleighing a goliath.  But that craziness for eight days ends – and it ends predictably with a big time school stacked with NBA talent cutting down the nets in the Championship.

So when, for example, a politician like Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma famously tosses a snowball onto the senate floor on a chilly February to “prove” global warming is a hoax, he’s conflating weather with climate. It would be just as inaccurate if a sports prognosticator were to claim that tiny George Mason’s run to the Final Four in 2006 “proved” that little no-name schools were now dominating college basketball.

They call it March Madness because of its very nature of unpredictability. However, when the dust settles, the smart money will always be on one of the traditional basketball power schools to win it all. Similarly, weather forecasts rely heavily on educated guesses because of its very nature of unpredictability. However, the smart money –and indeed the very fortunes of our planet – rests with the predictable and hard truths of climate science. 

THE FALCONS AND THE DEMOCRATS

I had no real rooting interest in the Super Bowl. I am a fan of neither the Patriots nor the Falcons, but it certainly was a highly entertaining game for any football fan to witness. Entertaining because of the amazing way New England came from behind, and the amazing way Atlanta imploded.

And as any true fan of NFL football knows inherently down to their core – the Atlanta Falcons are doomed at least in the short term. For every true fan knows with the certitude of knowing the sun will rise tomorrow – the Falcons will not make it back to the Big Game next year. Further, their odds of even making the playoffs are very, very steep. History has shown with the clarity of the Arctic Ocean that if you lose the Super Bowl, you will not return the next year and most likely years later as well. It is as certain as death and taxes.

And when you couple this iron-clad fact with the historical choke job turned in by the loser of Super Bowl 51, the fate of Atlanta is sealed for at least the next five to seven years easy.

Yet, beginning the day after their historic loss, and continuing right on through next season, everyone who should know better: the owner, the GM, the coach, the players and the professional prognosticators will all join in unison to try and convince the world of alternate facts. That the Falcons will get back to work and launch a realistic campaign to represent the NFC in Super Bowl 52. Instead of admitting reality and engaging in a strategy of deep and profound change, they will all stick to the tried and true delusional path of “retool and reload.”

History screams for the Falcons to make bold changes and massive shifts. But they won’t.

The reason they won’t is simple yet profoundly frustrating. The NFL is an organization ruled by fear of the unconventional. It’s why coaches don’t go for it a lot more on 4^th down and why GM’s continue to hire retread coaches, and why franchises always copy what the Super Bowl winner of the previous year has done. Owners and GM’s and coaches live in fear of being second-guessed by fans or whoever signs their checks. For most leaders in the NFL, losing is not as costly as going against the grain.

Therefore, what the Falcons should do – but won’t  - is to embrace their fate and use the next several seasons to completely rebuild so that they are in a much better position to compete for a championship sooner rather than later.

And that rebuild must start with the man most responsible for their historic loss.

The Falcons have an MVP quarterback in Matt Ryan. He tore up the NFL this year, despite a history which seems to strongly suggest he is a big moment choker throughout nine years in the league. He is also 31-years-old. He will be 36 to 38-years old when the Falcons emerge from the purgatory between Super Bowl loss and return to prominence. Therefore, the next step for the Falcons is crystal clear: trade Ryan while he is at the height of his value, yet on the downside of his longevity, to a QB-starved organization with valuable assets.

“Trade an MVP, all-pro quarterback at the height of his career?! That crazy!,” you might say.

No, sorry, it’s not. The secret formula to win an NFL championship is a relatively simple math equation that can be expressed as such:

Good coach + cohesive and talented players + great quarterback/time = Championship.

Of course every fan knows you need good coaching, good players and a good QB, but what every NFL franchise often refuses to acknowledge is that every team has a narrow window of opportunity with which to exploit that good coach, good players and good quarterback. Further, the window on the QB is the smallest. After all, a coach can last for a decades, a quality franchise will always continue to restock with good players, but the window for a good QB is fairly short and to make it even more precious that window of time is divided into thirds where only about 33 percent of his career is available for a championship run.

Here’s how it looks. The first third is the learning curve years, say one to four where your QB is figuring out how to be great. Years five through eight are the prime seasons with which to take a shot at the brass ring of a Super Bowl. Years nine through 12 is the decline. Matt Ryan is now in the decline period. And Ryan enters the decline period at the same time his team is entering the Bermuda Triangle of Super Bowl Loser.

For the Falcons, the best chance they have for getting back to the Super Bowl is to embrace the hole they’ve dug for themselves by losing to the Patriots. They shouldn’t fight against history’s gravitational pull as Super Bowl loser. They are going to be wandering in the wilderness for the next several years – that is assured by their loss. They should use that time wandering to build better, younger and cheaper assets to make that run up the hill again. They shouldn’t squander their exile by denying they are in exile. They are wearing the scarlet letters “SBL” for Super Bowl Loser. They should use this time as outcasts to recast their future.

Unfortunately, their owner, their GM and their coach won’t do what is needed because they fear the backlash of taking the bold and unconventional path. And so, the Falcons will most assuredly limp along for the better part of a decade putting together, 8-8, 9-7 and 7-9 seasons with the occasional 10-6 and first round playoff loss mixed in.

Bad times ahead for the good people of Atlanta.

And speaking of bad times…let’s talk about another team that has been battered recently – the democrats.

In many ways, the democrats are a lot like the Super Bowl loser; blithely continuing forward under the delusion that business as usual is the correct strategy to pursue.

In 2016 the democrats got their teeth kicked in. They got their teeth kicked in because their leadership is old, out of touch and unwilling to embrace new ways. The 2016 election was the Super Bowl, and the democrats lost. I don’t know if that means they are doomed to fail in the next big game – the 2020 presidential election - but I do think the analogy is apt. The Falcons will not win a championship in the near future and therefore must fundamentally chance course. Similarly, the democrats are going to be out of power for several years and must also fundamentally change course.

For the Falcons, that means trading Matt Ryan and for the democrats, that means trading their current leadership for younger, hungrier and more entrepreneurial leaders.

Under the current leadership of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Harry Read and others, the democrats have lost everything. The House, the Senate, the presidency and most states – gone. Further they will continue to seat a minority on the Supreme Court. If the Falcons second half collapse was historic, so too has been the democrats collapse last year.

And just like Atlanta’s future, the democrat’s future hinges on bold, unconventional action. Trading their MVP quarterback during this window of opportunity is critical for the Falcon’s future. Replacing their tired war-horses for fresh blood and new ideas is critical to the democrat’s.

I fear however, that the democrats – like NFL franchises - are paralyzed by their fear of unconventional thinking. Instead of looking at the results of their shocking 2016 losses and admitting that a massive change in course is needed - right now - they will dither.

The good news for both the Falcons and the democrats? Their competition is flawed as well. The other teams in the NFL and the other political party are just as prone to screw things up. Their time will come again – for the Falcons they will amass the right combination of coach, team and quarterback to make another run and for the democrats they will amass the right combination of leaders, ideas and message to recapture power.

For both, I’m afraid it’s just a matter of later rather than sooner.

MY HAPPY PLACE

It’s strangely unsatisfying to be so happy at a time of national sadness

I’m a white, gainfully employed, college educated 50-year-old, happily married, father of two living in Oregon. My health is near perfect, my family-life is truly enviable, I like my job and love the city and region in which I live.

I am comfortably middle – to slightly upper – middle class, own a very nice home and have zero debt. Further, my wife and I have a darn nice nest egg in savings which will be able to pay for both of my kid’s college education and a large chuck, if not all of our retirement. Speaking of the kids, they are truly special young people who get good grades, stay out of trouble and bring my wife and me true joy. 

Finally, we are in our 21^st year of marriage and things are as great as ever. She also has a job that she enjoys and provides a steady income. We are preparing for a family European vacation later this summer.

In short, If I am not the happiest man in the word, then I am a whole hell of a lot closer to him than to anyone truly miserable.

Ironically enough, I have never been sadder about the state of our nation and the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

For I must add to my biographical information above that I am a liberal democrat, who greatly believes in diversity, equality, strong government, religious freedom, an independent press, a woman’s right to choose and tolerance toward all. And if you are all those things, you can’t help but practically weep openly not just at Trump and his cronies, but at the millions of fellow Americans who genuinely like the way he talks, acts and reacts.

So yeah, it’s weird. It’s weird to be so personally happy and to have so many blessings to be happy about – all in the shadow of the most regressive, repulsive and downright mean executive and legislative branches in my life.

My laptop these days is a schizophrenic collection of circuits, wires and plastic. One minute, my wife and I are booking rooms in really cool looking pensions in Munich for that trip of a lifetime this summer, and the next minute we are gaping slack-jawed at the latest constitutional crisis eagerly courted by the president. One minute we are celebrating the online postings of my daughter’s straight A report card, the next we are firing off angry letters to the editor.

My wife cried deeply on election night, I had a panic attack.  Three days later we were playing a rollicking game of monopoly with our kids and practically stumbling over the giddy domestic bliss of the scene.

In some ways if feels like winning the lottery and receiving a cancer diagnosis on the same day.  Thereafter, you are eagerly planning trips and purchasing dream cars, only to suddenly catch yourself and wonder, “but will I be around long enough to enjoy any of this?”

Recently, my place of business was bought be a larger entity. I joined with my colleagues for several days wondering if I was about to be laid off. I wasn’t. It turned out the new company likes my work and will keep me on. But not so, others.

This sets up a kind of survivor’s guilt at work.  I never talk about the new job afforded me, nor do I ask them about their status. We talk about the weather a lot and try and avoid deeper conversations.

It’s a little like that now with people I know who are or will suffer to a much greater degree than I am or will under Trump. As mentioned, I am white, I have a degree and a good job with good health benefits and substantial savings without debt. But I know a lot of people who are minorities, have debt, have deep reservations about their health insurance and are part of the LGBTQ community.

My family and I – at least in the short to medium term – will be fine under Trump. Yet, we will live in the same community, drive the same streets and breathe the same air as people who will decidedly not be fine under this president.

A few years ago we lived near an area that was devastated by fire. I remember touring the burned out neighborhoods with a friend and he pointed to a pristine house on a hill that was untouched by the blaze. All around it however, black earth and the smoldering wreckage of dwellings. He said how lucky that homeowner was, to be one of the few the fire left unscathed. Yes, I thought…sort of. But every day from now on, he will wake up and look out at a hell scape of destruction and wonder: “should I be happy that my house and stuff are safe, or should I be sad because everyone else’s is destroyed?”

Perhaps that might be the biggest difference between Red and Blue America today. Red America would chose to be happy because their home and all their possessions are intact. Blue America could not chose to be happy because of the isolation, loneliness and suffering visited unto others in the community.

I’m sorry, but there very much is an “I got mine” mentality emanating from Trump and his millions of supporters. Whereas, we progressives feel deep down in our hearts: “I can’t be truly happy if so many others are miserable.”

So I live like that person on the hill – reveling in the happiness of my near perfect bubble – yet knowing that right outside the window lies sorrow and bleakness.

It is indeed strange to be a happy little island in a sea of bleak. 

LEDGES

It’s been over two months since he won election and nearly a full week since he’s become the president. We’ve had a lot of time actually, to assess why millions of people voted for him. There is no lack of interviews with Trump supporters who’ve weighed in on why they voted for this, shall we say, unconventional candidate.

Here’s the funny thing I believe we've discovered about these voters: they are actually frightened by him as well.  If you look below the surface of their loud pronouncements and their “in your face” joy at his election, you can clearly see the fear in their words and hearts. Despite their overt boldness, you can really hear the apprehension in their voice – it is as if they can see the long dark descending tunnel of the Trump presidency and the hell to which it leads.

And so, they are metaphorically hanging on to precarious ledges of rationalization and justification that keeps them, temporarily, from the abyss.

This article does as good a job as any at allowing us to peer inside the mind of overtly supportive, yet secretly terrified Trump supporters. Now don’t get me wrong: all supporters of incoming presidents begin with a sense of hope. You hope that the person you voted for is going to do the things they said they were going to do when they were merely a candidate.  But if you read this article, and many, many more you come away with the inescapable conclusion that the vast majority of Trump supporters are clinging to hope the very same as they would in a Las Vegas casino.

Just like the rest of us, they literally have no idea how the Trump presidency will work out and right now, they are surreptitiously clenching their jaws and holding their breath as if life is standing perfectly still and they are watching a tiny ball skitter around a roulette table. Further, like typical dead-end gamblers hunched around the game, they’ve wagered more than they should and now all they can do is put on a brave face and helplessly watch as fate takes over. Like degenerate gamblers with their self-talk, so many of these people have shakily bet on a color and a number and told themselves, “This time, my number has to come up!”

But it probably won’t. And deep, deep down, they know it too. They know that if the shoe were on the other foot, that if somehow a Trump of the left had been elected, they would all right now be buying shotguns shells and bottled water and putting down payments on isolated cabins in the woods or bunkers dug into the sides of hills.  That in the Bizzaro political world where democrats behaved exactly like republicans, but still hoed toward their policy and candidate ideals, the nation and the world would be bracing for President Snoop Dog’s second week as thousands of terrified citizens held battered signs reading, “THE END IS NIGH!”

And so, they are metaphorically hanging on to precarious ledges of rationalization and justification that keeps them, temporarily, from the abyss.

What are these ledges? 

      The first ledge is the pronouncement that he will clean up his act once he settles into office. Especially from women supporters, we continually hear their belief that President Trump won’t be as vulgar and hateful as Candidate Trump. They clench their fingers to this slim outcropping and try desperately not to think about the prospect of a 70-year-old man of extreme privilege fundamentally changing his life-long personality.

·         The second ledge holds the minuscule promise that a complete outsider like Trump will be the tonic that cures the ills of our nation.  While the well-worn sod of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington holds some true appeal, they know deep down Trump was not the outsider they were looking for. A mediocre at best business man, who failed as much as he succeeded, with only one true skill – self-promotion – who’s spent more than half of his adult life as laughing stock is decidedly ill fit to be the outsider who restores the country to past greatness.

·         Third, we move onto the even narrower ledge which I will term the faith-based sill. That somehow because of his party affiliation, The Donald will help restore America to a moral and god-fearing place. Here we find our petrified supporters hanging on by their fingernails and wrapping their minds around the man’s record in all its pussy-grabbing, thrice married, Howard Stern fawning, abortion flip-flopping, daughter-ogling glory.

·         Slimmer and further down the dark tunnel is a millimeter thick crevice of rationalization which claims Trump “tells it like it is” and that his brutal honesty will set us back on track. Here, they swallow hard, hug the abyssal wall and refuse to look down knowing full well that the pit they fear has been literally carved by the thousands upon thousands of his lies.

·         And finally we get to the last ledge, a mere indentation almost too tiny to see with the naked eye: the dry mouth and palm sweat-inducing idea that Trump and Trump alone can put an end to political corruption. Unfortunately for the faithful, time didn’t stop and we are already neck deep in the Goldman Sacks – never to be released tax returns –conflicts of interest –Russian hacking – election fraud canard – lock her up faint – sleaze. This mere illusion of a ledge is already giving way and it won’t be long now until gravity takes them.

In a way, it’s tempting to feel sorry for this lot. Back in November, the abyss was a small crater almost completely out of sight. Their reasons and rationalizations weren’t ledges back them – they were safe and comfortable stepping stones to the voting booth. Perhaps, owing to Trump’s image as a TV personality, it didn’t quite seem fully real a couple of months ago.

Today however, the abyss looms large and menacing beneath their feet. Their trembling fear – like our own – speaks of a fall we and they can’t rebound from. To us, the people who saw this grave mistake materialize in the summer, that fall will show us how right we were. To them, the fall will show them how wrong they were. And there will be no winners. Perhaps the only saving grace is that as we all fall into the abyss - now devoid of ledges - we might be able to hold onto each other.

WHAT IF WE JUST IGNORE HIM?

Like millions of people, I think the presidency of Donald Trump is going to be an unmitigated disaster that has the potential to inflict profound and lasting damage to the United States and the rest of the world. After all, even if your ignore his racism, sexism and hyper-aggressive posturing, he still is a woefully unprepared man who’s personal and professional history show absolutely no evidence that he has the talent and experience to be an even below average president. In short, every other past commander-in-chief is playing for second place in the “Worst President in History” sweepstakes.

But as we gird for the nausea-inducing inauguration coming in January, I am finding a sliver of hope in how we all can survive the coming tsunami of regret, in a very unlikely place. For buried under the news about his ridiculous/dangerous cabinet choices, his stunning lack of basic international knowledge and his reliance on Russia for legitimacy, is the cascading number of A and B list celebrities refusing to perform at his inauguration.

Seemingly, none of these performers is making a big and public rebuke of The Donald – they are just simply declining the invitation as if it were an offer from Bob in accounting to attend his hastily thrown-together holiday party.

And that may be the secret for living under a Donald Trump administration – just ignore him.  Don’t engage with him on Twitter, don’t hold a press conference, and don’t protest at the Oscars if you are famous, or protest at Starbucks if you aren’t.  Just live your life as if Trump were still just a mediocre businessman and D-list celebrity.

Here is my rationale. A few years ago, I read an article when a physicist was explaining what the Higgs Boson, or God particle, does related to all other things. He said to think about Higgs Boson like the water in a swimming pool, and you, immersed in the water, are all other particles of matter swimming forward. The water is necessary to push against for propulsion.

For Donald Trump, his Higgs Boson is angry response to his rhetoric. He needs it to survive in the political realm. His incredibly shocking success in the campaign was 100 percent based on attacking his opponent, waiting for the response and then attacking with double the venom. And it worked, again and again and again. First with the wilting assemblage during the primaries and then with Hillary Clinton in the general election. Trump was most comfortable – and effective – when he threw out something provocative and then lured his adversary into a childish back and forth.

But right now, our brightest stars and entertainers are showing us a clear path forward. They are telling The Donald, thanks but no thanks. And current reports suggest that these simple and low-key acts of refusal are really getting to him.

I truly believe that is our best response to Trump world. When he says something purposefully provocative, mean spirited and stupid, just leave it alone. After all, we have to remember who and what he is.  He is a bully and deeply insecure man whose biggest fears in life are being neglected and forgotten. People like that need our anger and complaints to feed their insatiable hunger for attention.

Yes, I fully realize that failing to engage against his misdeeds in office would be extremely harmful and I am in no way advocating withdrawing from the political process. Indeed, all of us must vigorously fight against his mean-spirited wishes and overt attempts to destroy our liberal democracy.

What I am advocating is for all of us to ignore the man and fight against the acts.

If you are a democratic politician, women business leader, minority celebrity or any of his other favorite targets and he inevitably aims his twitter rage toward you; don’t respond. Let him seethe with unspent ammunition wasting away on his smartphone.

By all means, fight against his retro-policies and illegal legislation. Fight against his Supreme Court nominee and cabinet picks. Just don’t call him out by name. Don’t even mention his name.  Starve him of the thing he craves most – attention.

After a while, I think the man might actually have a change of heart. Is it inconceivable that after a year of aggressive national neglect Trump might recalibrate and try to recapture the spotlight by implementing policy that is logical, beneficial and well thought out?  Not because he suddenly develops a sense of morality, but because civility and integrity provide him with the only path toward the attention he so needs.

It seems obvious that Trump didn’t become president to serve his nation and his people – he became president to serve his ego. Yet, if his ego is ultimately not served while occupying the White House, we might actually force him into become a decent public servant after all.

COLLEGE COACHES ARE CEO’S, NOT MENTORS

The University of Oklahoma Football; Wells Fargo; Duke Basketball; Enron.

What do these four institutions have in common? Simple, they are (were) led by chief executive officers who are bound to one simple goal above all others – winning.

The job of all CEO’s – whether it is for a Fortune 500 company or a major college program - is to accomplish the following three tasks: 1.) Stay employed as CEO, 2.) Make money for your stakeholders, 3.) Wring the most profitability and efficiency as possible out of your employees. Accomplish these three tasks and you’re a winner.

And as such, fans and supporters of big-time college athletics would probably sleep better at night if they stopped believing in the fantasy that coaches and corporate CEO’s are re any different. They are not – and this is never truer then when controversy and scandal emerges. For a CEO and a big-time coach reacts to controversy and scandal in exactly the same way: first, protect oneself, second protect one’s operation, third protect one’s legacy.

The University of Oklahoma Football enterprise is run by its chief executive Bob Stoops – more commonly referred to by his ceremonial title – head coach. Same for CEO Mike Krzyzewsk at Duke. The title coach is bestowed upon these men because it is familiar to fans and steeped in the historic trappings of American sports going back more than a century. But make no mistake, these two famous and public men are chief executive officers in the exact same way that John Stumpf was CEO of Wells Fargo (before being force to resign amid scandal) and Ken Lay was CEO of disgraced energy giant Enron.

Currently, CEO’s Stoops and Krzyzewski are embroiled in scandals involving employees at their place of business. For Stoops the controversy surrounds his comments and actions related to an employee of the football program who punched a female student in the face and broke her jaw. That employee, Joe Mixon was disciplined a couple of years ago, but allowed to return to the football program because his value to the overall operation was deemed worthy of the public relations backlash of his actions. Exacerbating the controversy has been CEO Stoops’ comments related to the employee’s criminal behavior, saying that he deserved a second chance.

For CEO Krzyzewski, he is dealing with an employee, Grayson Allen, who has repeatedly tripped opponents during games and also acted petulantly on the bench. Krzyzewski, after conferring with his legal and public relations counsel, has suspended the athlete indefinitely; a strategic move allowing the CEO to modify the duration of the punishment dependent on public and stakeholder sentiment in the coming days and weeks.

CEO’s Stumpf and Lay also oversaw employees who perpetrated crimes and violated rules. The only difference between the businesses and the athletic programs is scale. Wells Fargo and Enron featured corrupt culture and employee misbehavior on a national level.

Similarly, when the scandals became public, Stoops, Krzyzewski, Stumpf and Lay all reached for their CEO playbook on how to handle a crisis which relies on a strategic balance of bold declaratives with flaccid silence. As such, you get congressional testimony and post-game press conferences which feature the following:

·         Virtuous proclamations about company/team culture (no acknowledgment of how this culture attracted and coddled said employees in the first place).

·         Forcefully declarations that any employee misbehavior will not be tolerated (deafening silence about how there is always a sliding scale of punishment based on an employee/players worth to the organization).

·         Vigorous assertions of how the company/team will move forward toward correction and healing (unanswered questions about how the misbehavior would have been allowed to continue were it not for outside discovery).

Indeed, it probably is for the best that we finally acknowledge that big-time sports tracks to the same amoral compass as big-time business. Corporations don’t exist to make our communities better, improve the lives of employees and provide outstanding products and services to customers. They exist to win and by and large we all accept that fact. So too is the reason why Oklahoma Football and Duke Basketball exist, to win. And the men in charge of those enterprises are hired and fired to ensure they stay in the winning column – broken jaws and tripped opponents be damned.

The only final sin of big-time college coaching and big-time corporate stewardship is to lose. For a losing record is the only surefire way to lose one’s job, one’s program and one’s legacy.

DONALD TRUMP AND JERRY JONES: THE MEN OF THE HOUR

I’m a democrat and hate the election results. I’m a lifelong Cowboys fan and love the current state of the team.

I am dreading January and the inauguration.  I am so looking forward to January and the Playoffs!!!

In short, I’m a man who is practically ripping at the seams with cross-purposed emotions. 

Anticipating the incredible low of witnessing Donald Trump holding a bible and being sworn in and anticipating the lofty high of seeing Jerry Jones hold the Vince Lombardi trophy.

How did this happen? How did 2016 become both the year of Trump and the year of Jones?

For most of my life Donald Trump has been a kind of a punchline. All Hat and no cattle as the saying goes. Loud, brash, classless, a fabulously wealthy man who does the one thing that all other fabulously wealthy men don’t do –brags about his wealth. A man of ridiculous hair, a ridiculous show, a ridiculous “university,” a ridiculous bunch of businesses that no other self-respecting billionaire would ever put his name on….Donald Trump in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s was America’s rich but embarrassing uncle we endured on holidays.

For most of my allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys since 1989, the owner, Jerry Jones, has also been a kind of punchline. Also, all hat and no cattle when it came to actually building a great team. Yes, the early success (almost all of it due to Jimmy Johnson) was great. But since 1995? Embarrassment. A laughing stock. The parade of bad coaches, the expunged draft picks searching for a wide receiver, the face lift, the incomprehensible press conferences, Greg Hardy…all of it. Again, a kind of crazy uncle Jerry you barely could tolerate on family gatherings.

And so, during the spring, summer and fall of 2016, I’ve been all but sure that Trump would screw up and bow out before election. During the spring, summer and fall, I’ve been all but sure Jerry would screw up and have the team bow out before the playoffs.

But my god! Here we sit toward the end of December and Trump is heading toward the White House and Jerry is heading toward that awkward congratulatory handshake with Commissioner Roger Goodell.

For both men, the reasons for their success in 2016 come down to three factors:

-          Blind luck; a steadying influence; historic weakness of their opponents.

First the luck. Sorry, Trump and fans, but losing the popular vote by 2.8 million, yet winning the White House doesn’t make you good, it makes you lucky. The Electoral College and some breaks with voting patterns in just three states – and a totality of less than 100,000 votes put you over the top. Add in a frisky Vladimir Putin, a meddling FBI Director and the fake news strangeness and let’s just say, you metaphorically found the right four leaf clover on November 8.

For Jerry, his ride toward glory is paved by the incredible luck of having a ready-made NFL quarterback fall into his lap in the fourth round of the draft. And don’t forget Cowboy’s fans, the man tried nearly everything possible to select a QB NOT named Dak Prescott in last April’s draft. And, if Tony Romo didn’t get injured, ol’ Jerry would have never even plaid the kid to begin with. Jerry O’Jones must be 100 percent Irish to have that kind of luck.

Moving on, both men have greatly benefited by the influence of two key people who helped save each man from themselves. For T, it was the move to bring Kellyanne Conway to lead his campaign. The amateurs Lewandowski and Manafort would have almost certainly sunk the S.S. Trump long before it sailed into port. Her guidance to let Trump be Trump 80% of the time, but reign him in enough not to scare off skeptical supporters helped him win in key counties around the nation.

For Jerry, it is the calming presence of his son Steven. Let’s be totally honest fans: If Steven hadn’t literally shoved his father against the wall on that draft night three years ago, this franchise would own Johnny Manziel, and chances are very good that his historic implosion would have been even more spectacular in Dallas than it was in Cleveland. 

Finally, a word about the competition. Trump fan’s, if you are being totally honest with yourselves, no one thought back in 2015 that Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and the rest would be as terrible as they were. No one. But there they were, a gaggle of stumbling, incoherent, low energy nincompoops who made all us wonder – how did any of these guys actually win an elected office?

And of course, his defeat of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now being a loyal democrat, I could point out a lot of extenuating circumstances for her loss, but… It is inarguable that she was an historically unpopular candidate whose wonky delivery and Clinton baggage was a huge mountain to try and climb.

And about those Cowboys.  Well let’s see: the defending NFC Champion Panthers are out of the playoff picture, Green Bay has dug itself a huge hole with Aaron Roger’s surprisingly bad play for most of the year, the Seahawks have an offensive line that is truly offensive and the Giants offense and Eli Manning are like Ambien with cleats.

Yes, I know the Patriots are looming if the Cowboys make it to the Super Bowl, but even Bill Belichick’s dynasty is without the most dynamic playoff threat in the NFL – Rob Gronkowski.  Indeed, this year sets up amazing well for Dallas, given the anemic competition currently assembled.

So there you have it. In a normal year, with their normally unchecked demeanor and with even normal competition, these two guys would probably revert back to their normal default setting of laughing stock. But not this year.

Indeed 2016 is their year. Our men of the hour Donald and Jerry. I truly don’t know whether to laugh or cry.